There is little information on native species of hymenopteran parasitoids of fruit flies from the Neotropical region. The objective of this work was to know the parasitoids of fruit flies in western Minas Gerais and southern Goiás region. Then fruits (orange, carrabolla, guava, mango and cherry) were deposited on a 5cm layer of fine sand in plastic cylindrical, transparent and open at the top containers. Weekly pupae were separated from the substrate by flotation. Removed and placed in glass jars with fine sand kept at room temperature until the emergence of flies and/or their parasitoids. Trichopria Anastrepha Costa Lima (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae) was the most common in western Minas specie with 44.5% and Doryctobracon areolatus (Szépligeti) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was the most collected species in southern Goiás with 89.6%.

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a population-based optimization algorithm that mimics the foraging behavior of ants to approximate the solutions to difficult optimization problems. This work proposes an ACO-based edge detection method to solve the image edge detection problem. An ant at a node in the gray-scale image prefers to move toward a neighboring node with a large gradient magnitude and along a trail with a strong pheromone signal. When the route of an ant trends downward, the probabilistic termination rule can probabilistically terminate that route of the ant. Following the first-stage process with a fixed number of iterative constructions, the strong-pheromone nodes are derived as the strong-edge nodes, which are likely to be the edges in the image and are assumed to be the starting nodes of ants in the next stage. After the second-stage process with a few more iterative constructions, the pheromone intensities of the nodes near the edges are further enhanced, and the strong-edge and weak-edge nodes in this stage can be derived accordingly. The strong-edge nodes together with some weak-edge nodes extending the edges are set as the edges of the image. Experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method.

Baja California, state located in the northwestern region of Mexico, in 2012, presented a cultivated area of 222,511.94 ha. The 14.4% of that area was used for cotton crop (Gossypium Hirsitum). The main residue generated is the cotton stalk that has a significant energy potential currently unexploited, and whose disposition generally is open burning. This activity is performed because it reduces the costs of land preparation for the next agricultural cycle and also prevents the spread of pests and diseases in future crops. The use of agricultural biomass waste has acquired more international relevance as a source of renewable energy because of its environmental benefits, which consist mainly in the replacement of fossil fuels and contribute to the mitigation of pollutant emissions. Therefore, the aim of this work is the estimation of the availability of waste biomass generated from cotton crop and its energy potential for the generation of heat and power. Also, it was carried out an analysis of factors that would affect the development of a transformation industry of biomass into energy, applying the SWOT methodology. The results highlights that from cotton stalks is feasible to obtain 2.10 PJ, equivalent to 58,772 m3 of diesel, and thus supply a power plant with 22 MW of capacity. This magnitude of available energy would contribute to the diversification of the energy matrix of Baja California, which currently depends on external supplies of fuels because it does not count with their own petroleum resources.

Designing powerful integrated circuits with multiple functions in increasingly smaller packages impacts traditional digital logic circuit design theory. These practical processes for automated CMOS cell design can be widely applied to allow for the efficient production of useful circuit designs. There exists a very large difference between the theory learned in the classroom and the practical electrical engineering knowledge utilized in the workplace. This paper introduces the conversion of logic gates into Verilog and producing a useable CMOS cell ready for fabrication.

This study aims at designating the indicators to be monitored within the scope of biodiversity for a sustainable forest management, considering the social, economic and ecological conditions of forestry and forest resources in Turkey. A set of criteria and indicators, composed by the General Directorate of Forestry (GDF) on the basis of the criteria and indicators defined in the Pan-European and Near Eastern Processes, was enquired via a survey to serve this purpose. This survey aimed at determining the perspective of the personnel of the General Directorate of Forestry, which has been monitoring the criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management for 10 years, regarding this topic as well as the experience gained. At this phase, the survey was completed upon receiving the views of the scientists interested in different dimensions of this topic as well as the views of other interest groups affiliated with forestry. As a result, there are 13 indicators that may be used as the basis of a regional or forest management unit level for the purpose of protecting, developing and maintaining biodiversity: they were presented as the main outputs of the study. Furthermore, these indicators are instruments, which may easily be used by relevant decision-makers in the management of forest resources in a more effective and productive manner. \nKeywords: Sustainability, natural resource management, forest resources, biodiversity criteria and indicators, Turkey.

It is established that the organs consist of updating populations of cells (kidneys, a liver, a pancreas) possess the highest information morphological capacity. This fact can be explained both by level of functional activity of organ, and by level of proliferative activity in it. The conducted research shows that the studied organs can conditionally be divided into two groups depending on the value of an existing structural variety.

In this study, the characterization and the antimicrobial properties of nanosized Ag-TiO2 coatings on leather were investigated. For this purpose, turbidity, viscosity and pH of nAg-TiO2 solutions prepared by the sol-gel method were measured. The surface morphology of treated leathers was observed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and the elemental analysis was performed by energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The antimicrobial performance of nAg-TiO2 coatings on leather materials to the test microorganisms as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillius niger was evaluated by the application of qualitative (Agar overlay method) and quantitative (percentage of microbial reduction) tests. According to qualitative test results it was found that 2% and higher concentrations of nAg-TiO2 on the leather samples were effective against all microorganisms tested. Moreover, quantitative test results showed that leather samples treated with 5% of nAg-TiO2 demonstrated the highest antibacterial activity against E. coli with 93.50% bacterium removal, whereas 2% of nAg-TiO2 on leather was enough to exhibit the excellent percentage reduction against S. aureus of 99.99%. The results are promising for the use of colloidal nano Ag-TiO2 solution on lining leather as antimicrobial coating.

Fifteen wheat genotypes (Triticum aestivum L.) with winter, facultative and spring growth types were arranged at two laboratory and field experiments in 2011-12. Trials of green house and field experiments were Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five replications and Randomized Complete Blocks Design (RCBD) at three planting dates, respectively. Spring and facultative growth types had the highest and lowest ion leakage. At six leaves stage winter type genotypes including Saison, Marton, Gaskogen, C-82-12, C-81-14, with Alvand, Mahdavi and Zarrin facultative type had in vegetative growth, but Shiraz, Pishtaz, M-79-7, M-81-13 and Kavir spring type with two facultative genotypes of Marvdasht and Tus entered to generative stage and had sensitive to cold. Spring type of genotypes was minimum grain yield and its components. Facultative growth type of genotypes had more plant height and total dry matter. The minimum ion leakage, lethal temperature (LT50=-350C), and maximum grain yield and total dry matter was allocated for C-82-12 genotype. In contrast, M-79-7 genotype had the opposite values. Spike per square meter had positive correlation with grain yield. Having negative correlation of ion leakage with total dry matter and grain yield could be used as an indirect criterion for screening of tolerant genotypes. With increasing potassium accumulation in plant, ion leakage decreased and was tolerant to cold stress. It is concluded that genotype, stage and growth type, vernalization necessity, were important for evaluating of genotypes to cold tolerance. Final leaf number measurements indicated no vernalization requirement for Kavir spring wheat and vernalization fulfillment after 42 cold days for Marton winter wheat.

Congruency as one of the indications of geometric relations caused to make order and integrity in space. Using Congruency coefficient in this method caused to associate a trend like single-point perspective in viewer in which all elements has been driven to one point and because eye follows such concepts, it has been directed to the beginning point. Muslim architect also used this method in architecture of mosques in order to lead the viewer to the vertex of dome which is the beginning point of congruency and end of unity and director of monotheism.\nThe purpose of this research is to investigate the geometric order with sub-branch of Congruency as unity factor in “Sheikh lotfollah”. In this research, for achieving this, it is\ntried that to investigate all parts of mosque in tiles work, from external view of dome and entrance portal toward inside to the bottom of dome house with field study and verbal observation methods. Obtained results show that if it is necessary that eye and all parts\nsummit to single point- or unity-, architect used congruency in a way that proportional coefficient with ordinary size of elements to existing shapes is considered in a different manner and finally, high sign of geometric order and proper congruency is appeared just in the below of main dome which includes all kinds of congruency. The results indicate that the main Cupola is congruent with all of the Arches inside it as congruency coefficients of 0.4,0.2 and 1. Besides, this congruency is also observed in tile work inside Cupola with coefficient of 0.6. According to this, the congruency in Cupola of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque\ncan be divided to three categories of radial, radial-rotational and radial-annular.

The combustion of solid fuels including biomass causes formation of emissions and particulate pollutants at different concentrations. It is necessary to reduce the amount of pollutants to acceptable levels because standards for particulate matter (PM) limits are becoming lower. Decreasing of PM can be provided by many ways like filters or electrostatic separator. In this work is solved how type of wood biomass (dendromass) can change production of PM and production of other emissions - carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) if they are burned in small fireplace. There were burned 4 types of dendromass - birch with bark, birch without bark, beech and spruce in small fireplace with rated power 6kW. In results is visible effect of fuel on production of CO, NOx and PM. All of the restrictions are described in detail in this paper.

Abstract:\n The political, military and cultural-religious developments from the Middle East, especially Israel’s relations with the neighboring states, are extremely complex, frequently tense and have a substantial risk potential, a big military conflict being likely to ignite here, at any given moment. The thorough knowledge of the area, from the perspective of an important French, contemporary politologist is the main objective of our approach, which is analytic.\nThe study takes into consideration the quasi-exhaustive study of Glucksmann’s texts pertinent to the subject, in order to obtain the necessary clarification of the geopolitical context and uncovering the most realistic peace solutions.\nOne of the remarkable results we have reached refers to the existence of a genuine science of “perception management” which the belligerent parties practice, in order to manipulate the public opinion on a global scale; we show how we can contribute, through successive, comparative evaluations to achieving a specific hermeneutics, which would lead to a detached perspective of the events.

Background: Association of lipid markers and occurrence impaired fasting glucose (IFG) has a different pattern in different populations. The present study aimed to investigate the associations of some lipid markers with impaired fasting glucose in Kermanshah city, 2013.\nMethods: By a case-control study, 120 IFG subjects and 240 controls refereed to two laboratories in Kermanshah city were recruited during more than 2 month. Each subject interviewed using a socio-demographic questionnaire, and lipid markers including Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride (TG), Low Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), High Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) checked. Chi-square test (χ2), independent sample T-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and a multiple logistic regression were used for the statistical analyses.\nResults: IFG subjects had significantly higher TC, TG and, LDL-c than controls (p<0.05), but both groups had comparable BMI and HDL-c, (p>0.05). FPG was positively and significantly correlated with TG and TC range but not for BMI, LDL-c and HDL-c. The highest correlation coefficients (r) with FPG was for TG than TC (r = 0.14, p < 0.01). In multivariable regression, the ORs estimated for lipid markers were not associated with IFG but its OR in those females reported having a history of OCP usage was 2.4 fold compared to controls (OR=2. 4, CI: 1.16-4.95).\nConclusions: The TC, LDL-c and TG had significantly a higher value in IFG subjects and should be taken into consideration for prevention of IFG.

Purpose: Cystic echinococcosis (CE), is a zoonotic disease and may lead to significant economic damage in Turkey. In this study CE was examined both imaging methods and IHA, we aimed to compare these results with each other. Materials and Methods: Obtained the radiological findings of patients with results obtained from Indirect Hemagglutination Test (IHA) and evaluated these findings in a retrospective study. The patients who were diagnosed by various imaging methods were evaluated according to gender, age and localization as percentage values and the results were compared with the results obtained by an IHA test. Results: Between January 2010 and January 2013, total 271 patients were diagnosed with CE after they were investigated by different diagnostic imaging methods. The findings indicate that the compatibility between the results obtained by imaging methods and IHA test are not high as expected. Conclusions: As CE is a major healthcare issue in Van, Turkey where the population is involved with stockbreeding, it is very important that the comparability and safety of a CE scanning should be accompanied with at least two sensitive testing and eventually we decided that radiological study is necessary.

This paper aims to show main problems among different generations at a workplace from the view of knowledge sharing. These problems are in close connection with the characteristics of generations’ behaviour, lifestyle and trust. A purpose is to give suggestions to HR to handle these problems in order to build and to operate a knowledge management system on the basis of a learning organizational culture. \nThe paper leads the readers’ way of thinking from the features of generations, across the problems of knowledge sharing to the tasks of intergeneration management. The author shows different generational characteristics from a viewpoint of teamwork, trust and knowledge sharing on the basis of earlier literary data, theories and the author applies own experience as well.\nThe author supplemented the previous ideas with the most important characteristics of the learning organisational culture. The paper identifies the most significant differences and generational values which can help to create common thinking, behaviour and dialogue which can bring knowledge sharing closer and facilitate the narrowing of the gap in different generational value systems. The paper formulates related HR tasks on the basis of steps of knowledge management system building and composes challenges of the HR in the light of different generational characteristics.\nThe paper contains new ideas about the comparison of different generational characteristics from the view of knowledge sharing, teamwork and learning organization. It formulates an origin theory about HR tasks to handle these new problems and conflicts in organizations in order to operate knowledge management systems successfully.

Variation, including narrow-sense heritability, and correlations were estimated based on seedling height and root collar diameter of three-year-old seedlings in a progeny test of 22 Manna ash (Fraxinus ornus L.) families. Large differences were found within family and among families for the characters based on results of analysis of variance. Averages of the height and root collar diameter were 118 cm, 15.6 mm in third year of field performance, respectively. Survival was 88% in end of third growing year. \nThe coefficient of variations within family of the height and diameter were higher than among families. Estimated heritability was very low for the characters. Significant correlations (r=0.625, p≤ 0.05) between height and root collar diameter were found. Results of the study were discussed for new plantations and breeding of the species.

The main purpose of this study is to measure the listening comprehension skills of 5th grade students with the help of a web-based system. This study was conducted with 5th grade students studying in the primary schools of Eskisehir, Turkey. The scale used in the study is the “Web-based Listening Scale”. The study investigated the level of students’ differentiated listening skills, in addition to parents’ educational level, family income level, Turkish Course grade, and the students’ preferred music genre. The results indicate correlations between levels of listening skill and parents’ educational level, family income level and students’ preferred music genre. Moreover, it was found that a powerful relationship exists between listening skills and students’ Turkish Course grade. The study found that students who used the web-based system were more attentive and motivated than students who did not use this system. Individual student evaluations were provided by the web-based system. Finally, web-based systems can be used positively for language teaching and learning, including processes associated with improvement, measurement and assessment processes.

In this study, the Tefen-origin, 2+0 years-old and naked-root oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky.) seedlings grown in Zonguldak-Gökçebey Forest Nursery have been utilized. Among morphologic criteria of seedlings, the length of seedlings and the diameter of root collar have been determined, and both quality classes have been established and the correspondence with TSI 5624/March 1988 Broadleaved Forest Tree Seedlings Quality Classification has been investigated. As a result of the research, of the Tefen-origin, 2+0 years-old and naked-root oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky.) seedlings grown in Zonguldak-Gökçebey Forest Nursery, the mean length of seedlings have been found to be 26.03 cm, while the root collar diameter has been found to be 5.39 mm. According to TSI 5624/March 1988 Broadleaved Forest Tree Seedlings Quality Classification, of the Tefen-origin, 2+0 years-old and naked-root oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky.) seedlings grown in Zonguldak-Gökçebey Forest Nursery, 75.3% (if 1st quality class is considered) and 18% (if 2nd quality class is considered) are considered to be in discarded seedling category.

E. coli BL21 (DE3) is the selected bacterial separation for increased gene expression and the production of new-combination protein in the E. coli bacterium system which is extensively used in research but due to the fact that it is known as a bacterium with low transformation rate, plasmids are first transferred to a vector with high transformation rate and after duplication, they are transferred to BL21 (DE3) bacterium. This study tried to investigate the effect of thermal shock increase and the density of the transformed DNA on the bacterium transformation rate. Three experiments were carried out in the transformation phase of the inclined bacterium and the effects of thermal shock temperature increase and the shock duration on the bacterium transformation were investigated. The results indicated that thermal shock temperature increase and shock duration will result in a remarkable increase in transformation rate of the E .coli BL21 (DE3) bacterium. Also, the effect of DNA concentration on transformation rates was subjected and results showed that the number of colonies at low densities is lower and this number increases as uprising density till an appropriate density (200 ng), later on density increasing did not have any effect on the number of produced colonies.

The two largest immigrant groups, Chinese and Indian to Malaysia reveal several factors associated with increasing tensions including the large degree of assumed difference in values, religion, and culture. Hence the ethnic prejudice was portrayed in national literature as the manifestation of the hatred attitude of dominant group (Malays) toward the immigrant groups. This study aimed at investigating the ethnic prejudice and tolerance among the present youth toward the indices in national literature. The theory of prejudice-tolerance by Martin and Westie (1959) was applied to survey the attitude of 1,600 respondents, comprising students in Form IV (O level), Form VI (A Level), university graduates and teachers, respectively 400 people. Findings showed that intimacy and humanitarian are two most popular indices being accepted whereas the inter-racial love and marriage were two indices that received prejudice perception among the respondents. Multiple regressions showed that the national literature may narrow the gap between the Malays and non-Malays and eliminate ethnic prejudice. Therefore national literature should be used in effective ways to encourage ethnic tolerance among Malaysian youths.

Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) has been a popular method for representation of Boolean functions. Various methods using several variable-ordering techniques have been proposed for minimizing the size of BDD. Though there are a number of methods to reduce the size of BDD, no such data structures are introduced to challenge the BDD for decades. This paper explains a novel data structure to store Boolean functions. The data structure is called as ACID Diagram (ASCII Decision diagram). The data structure is explained in detail. The complete ACID Diagram generation process is explained with examples. Methods to access the ACID Diagram are explained. Several advantages of ACID Diagrams with comparison to BDDs are discussed. Four quoted advantages are: Lesser access time for ACID Diagrams, Usage of processor registers directly, no wastage of memory in case of ACID Diagrams and finally the lesser number of pointers used in ACID Diagrams. We also propose several solid future works in ACID Diagrams. First future work is to validate the proposed ACID Diagram using several benchmark circuits. The second future work is, developing algorithms to simplify the ACID Diagrams similar to BDD simplification. The third future work is to develop methods to support Don’t care functions. Finally we conclude the paper with summary of the work done.

The culture of benefiting from the natural plants arising from the knowledge and experiences of people transferred from generation to generation for centuries but it has been disappearing day by day. In recent times, due to the prosperity in people’s level of welfare and meeting the needs easily, especially the interest of the young generation on natural plants has decreased. In this sense, the importance of ethnobotanical studies has gradually increased. This study was carried out in 2010 and 2011 in order to determine the plants used as food by people living in Üzümlü and the surrounding villages. The scientific names, Turkish names, local names, used parts, and usages of the plants were determined. It was found that 73 taxa of 25 families were used as food in the area. Rosaceae family took place in the first order with 12 taxa; Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Lamiaceae families in the second order with 6 taxa, and Liliaceae family in the third order with 4 taxa. Leaves of 34 plants, fruits of 26 plants and flowers of 12 plants were consumed as food. The plants are eaten as raw or consumed as salad or cooked as vegetable dish, in general.

Abstract\n\n\nThis paper seeks to respond to this major question that if Iran accedes to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and observes copyrights, in the realm of intellectual property, what demand and supply changes would occur in Iran’s book market.\n\nTo respond the above question first some instances of breaching the copyrights in book publishing sector is investigated. Then calculating the price elasticity and income elasticity, the impact of observing the copyrights on price and income, and therefore on the demand and supply for books in short term is demonstrated.\n\nAccording to the findings of this study with accession of Iran to WTO and observation of copyrights, some of the subsidies to the book sector must be terminated, and also the non-national authors would receive royalties. With elimination of subsidies and payment of royalties book price will increase by an average of 7.5 percent and demand would decrease by 13.35 percent. But, supply will show less sensitivity and its increase in short term would be insignificant. Yet, as experienced in other countries, for numerous reasons such as entering the international market and increased quality, the printing volume of books will increase. In long term. The experiences of other countries have shown the same trend.\n\nKey words\n\nIran, World Trade Organization, Demand and Supply for books, Copyrights, Organization of Intellectual Property. \nJEL Classification: Z11, D12, D21, F19, H25, N26.

In view of the nonlinear characteristics of dust electrostatic signals, the paper proposes a multi-scale analysis method based on the db2 wavelet and the fractal R/S analysis. According to Hurst exponents of the different scaled signals (less than 0.5, more than 0.5 or both), the electrostatic signals are divided into three scale signals: the micro-scale signals (d2 and d3 scale signals), the meso-scale signals (d1 scale signal) and the macro-scale signals (d4-d8 and a8 scale signals). The three-scale division reflects the different influence on dust electrostatic signals by micro-impurities, humidity, dust and various tunnel factors. The energy is mainly concentrated in the macro-scale in calculating the energy of the three-scale signals. The macro-scale signal energy shows the contact of the tunnel dust mainly affects the dust electrostatic signal.

Mimosa pudica plant leaves were collected from Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu, India. They were air-dried and ground and their phytochemical composition determined.The analysis demonstrated the presence of tannin, phlobatannins, saponin, steroids, terpenoids and the cardiac glycosidem, while no flavonoids were found. Thirteen phytochemical compounds were identified by GC-MS analysis, most of which are known to possess a variety of medicinal properties. A soxhlet apparatus was used to extract antibacterial active compounds from the powdered plant leaves and the antimicrobial activity of the extract were analyzed against some human pathogenic bacteria. Acetone and ethanol extracts were found to be the most active. Compared to other test plant-extracts aqueous extracts however, exhibited only limited inhibition against the tested organisms. The findings will hopefully be useful in helping to develop new and effective antibacterial agents.

In this paper, we apply the recently developed local fractional decomposition method [32] to handle the inhomogeneous damped wave equation and dissipative wave equation in fractal strings. The iteration procedure is based on local fractional derivative. The numerical results show that the methodology is efficient and simple tool for solving mathematical problems arising in fractal wave motions.

Currently, customer satisfaction and delightfulness is the key to success of any business in today’s competitive global market. The global market demands higher product quality and service at a very competitive price. Due to globalization, customers have been empowered to demand verities of products and services in several volumes. To obtain this, continuous improvements in the process has to be done to improve the competitive advantage of the organisation. During the research work reported in this paper ‘Process Failures’ was considered as one of the main disruptions excising and affecting the foundry industry. Subsequently, the ‘Foundry Total Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Model (FTFMEA)’ was designed, developed and appraised by conducting case studies and implementing it to see the effectiveness of the model developed. The implementation results and their analysis revealed that FTFMEA model could be successfully employed for reducing or eliminating failures in the production process of a foundry industry which is validated by reduction in the number of failures and increasing profit margins to the management. It would facilitate the inculcation of continuous quality improvement culture within the organization to reduce losses.

Aims The main goal was to explore how the fulfilled expectations will influence the client’s evaluation of provided services quality. Background Evaluating the quality of health care from the client´s perspective is very common. However, the clients usually evaluate factors which are important to the providers of services not for them itself. Method We used a questionnaire survey among the future consumers of health care and current inpatients in one hospital. The target groups were pregnant and women after delivery, aged 18-46. Results The clients from both groups marked the following factors as important and expected: positive attitude of staff, amount and quality of provided information and accommodation services. The quality indicators commonly used by the providers are not important for the majority of the clients. Conclusions: The expectations selected by the future consumers as important and rated high on the scale became their actual needs during the consequent consumption of care. The hospital management can use these expectations to optimize their internal processes and improve the quality of provided care. Implications for management The providers should know clients´ expectations and strive to fulfill them, because there is a relationship between their fulfillment and the clients´ care quality perception.

This study examined the causal relationships among team diversity, team conflict, and team performance. Path analysis was used to estimate the parameters, and the subjects were real estate brokers. A total of 564 questionnaires were distributed, and 312 valid samples were retrieved, with a valid return rate of 93.1%. According to the empirical results, value diversity influences relationship conflict positively and significantly. Technological skill, knowledge diversity, and value diversity influence task conflict positively and significantly. Value diversity influences team performance negatively and significantly. Task conflict influences collective efficacy positively and significantly. Relationship conflict influences collective efficacy negatively and significantly. Collective efficacy influences team performance positively and significantly. The negative effect of relationship conflict on collective efficacy is reduced by cooperation in conflict management.

This article proposes a novel approach to ranking fuzzy numbers based on weighted lower and upper possibilistic means (WLUPM). Initially, utilizing this method, weighted interval-value possibilistic means (WIVPM) will be composed and used as a crisp set approximation with respect to a\nfuzzy quantity. Then, a method will be determined to effectively rank or order various fuzzy numbers and their images to overcome the shortcomings of previous techniques. Furthermore, the calculations in this method are much simpler than other approaches. Finally, the proposed model utilizes a broad\nclass of fuzzy numbers. Some comparative examples illustrating the advantages of the proposed method are also included herein.

This study is to explore the effects of β-elemene on the aclarubicin-induced apoptosis in human leukemia HL-60 cells and the related molecular mechanisms. HL-60 cells were treated with different doses of aclarubicin（0.05 g/ml, 0.1 g/ml, 0.25 g/ml）for 20 hours, and the cells were cultured with varying concentrations of β-elemene (10 g/ml, 20 g/ml, 40 g/ml) in the presence or absence of low dose of aclarubicin (0.1 g/m). The apoptotic rates of HL-60 cells were analyzed by flow cytotic meters. The production of PGE2 in culture medium was detected with competitive ELISA. The expression of COX-2 and NF-κB activities in the HL-60 cells was determined by Western blot analysis. Lower concentrations of aclarubicin (0.05 g/ml and 0.1 g/ml) had not significantly affected the apoptotic rates of HL-60 cells. In the presence of β-elemene (0.1 g/ml), a low concentration of aclarubicin (0.1 g/ml) induced the apoptotic effect of the cells and down-regulated the COX-2 expressions and the down-stream product PGE2. NF-κB activitation in HL-60 cells was suppressed more significantly by β-elemene in combination with aclarubicin (0.1 g/ml) than the treatment with aclarubicin alone. β-elemene enhances the aclarubicin-induced apoptotic effect, down-regulates the COX-2 expression in HL-60 cells possibly by suppressing activitation of NF-κB.

To study the protective effect mechanism of Rosa laevigata Michx (RLM) on cardiotoxicity induced by Adriamycin in rats. SD rats were randomly assigned into five groups according to different treatments. The survival rate and plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) was observed for each group, while cardiomyocyte apoptosis was detected by instituted-labeled DNA (TUNEL). The glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in the myocardium tissue were subsequently determined. The expression levels of selected regulatory genes, including CuZnSOD, bcl-2 and bax, were analyzed using real-time PCR. Compared with the adriamycin treated group, the survival rate was obviously higher in SD rats treated with RLM. However, the BNP level was significantly increased with adriamycin and decreased with RLM in comparison to the control. TUNEL analysis demonstrated that Adriamycin could induce myocardial cells apoptosis, and the induced apoptosis can be inhibited by RLM. Among all the groups, the GSH-PX, CAT and SOD activities were significantly enhanced by RLM. Similarly, the expression level for CuZnSOD, bax, bcl-2, as well as the bcl-2/bax ratio, was also increased in the RLM treated group. The antioxidant and anti-apoptosis effects of RLM on Adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity are mainly resulted from the regulation of bcl-2/bax expression ratio.

This study was designed for investigating the different restriction sites resulted in Calpastatin gene (CAST) of Awassi ram lambs using MspI, NcoI and HhaI restriction enzymes and to investigate the allele, genotype frequencies and Hardy Weinberg equilibrium. A total of 90 Awassi ram lamb from two major nucleus flocks (AlKhanasry station (NCARE) and the Agriculture Center for Research and production (JUST university) breeding Stations) were used in this investigation. PCR-RFLP genotyping method was used. The amplification was conducted to 263 DNA samples for Calpastatin gene (CAST) using PCR machine then the amplified region was digested via different restriction enzymes (NcoI (90 sample), MspI (86 samples) and HhaI (87samples). Two MspI CAST gene genotypes were found in Awassi ram lambs represented by MM genotypes of two fragments (336 bp and 286 bp), MN genotype of three fragments (622 bp, 336 bp, 287 bp). Three different genotypes were found in Awassi CAST gene using HhaI restricted enzyme that were NN (622 bp), NM (622, 281 and 385bp) and MM (281 and 385bp). The genotypes and allele frequency of CAST /NcoI and HhaI were under genetic equilibrium while MspI was not under genetic equilibrium. Wild type NcoI CAST allele was the dominant genotype in the two locations. High frequency value (0.961) was found of the wild type with low heterozygozity in the studied individuals for both JUST and AlKhanasry locations (0.122 and 0.022, respectively). Calpastatin gene MspI and HhaI restriction sites were found to be polymorphic (mutant) with absence of the wild type, while the majority of the NcoI restriction site was in the wild type (no mutation). These mutant sites (MspI and HhaI) associations with production and economic traits should be investigated by selection in Awassi sheep.